Author
Topic: University Etiquette (Read 69441 times)

Argue/debate minutiae with the lecturer in your own time, not during the lecture.I'm not a lecturer/teaching professional myself, but I'm pretty sure they (and everyone else!) would appreciate it if you went to see them during their office hours to discuss minute details, rather than waste our lecture times. The professor or guest speaker or whoever only has one hour in the lecture. The rest of us want to learn. If you want to debate/discuss/elaborate on the finer points of ____, or put forward hypothetical situations to dis/prove a theory, do it on your time, not ours.

Sometime after 11am is not an unreasonable hour to have a conversation, even in halls.Yes, I know the walls in halls of residence are paper thin and you can practically hear the person next door's thoughts. But if I'm standing in the doorway of my friend's room and our conversation (at normal volume) goes on a bit longer than anticipated, at practically midday on a Saturday, we are not being unreasonable. This happened in first year. It was going on midday, and party girl who doesn't care about disturbing people at all hours of the night because she's drunk, thought it was highly unreasonable that some of us would actually have a conversation in the daytime. Cue her shouting, "It's 11 in the morning!" as if we were committing some heinous crime. Um, no. Just because you went partying all night, does not mean we should tiptoe around you in the daytime.

Don't complain bitterly about the university not supporting/helping you at all, if you haven't even told them you're having problems.Universities aren't psychic. And while they DO care, the reality is there are thousands of students here. They can't keep tabs on every single one. They might note whether you turned up for tutorials etc (if a register is taken), if you're handing in work, or failing classes; whether you've paid the rent on your room in halls of residence, etc. The flip side of all the freedom you get? It's taking responsibility for yourself. So if, say, your grandmother died and the grief is affecting your work, it's up to you to speak to your tutor/lecturer/adviser, get yourself an appointment with the counselling service, etc. The help is there - you just have to ask for it, rather than expect it to fall in your lap.

Sometimes the students haven't been able to even purchase the textbooks.

And this can be because the book is out of print, but the lecturer giving out the reading list has not bothered to check that. When I was working, we would get calls from other colleges asking ot borrow a certain book, because the author was one of our staff. However, it had been out of print for several years, our only copy had been "liberated" by some selfish person, and even the author himself was unable to help enquirers. I finally told one person who said "But it's on my reading list" to take the said reading list to the lecturer and point this out. That was the last time anyone ever rang asking for that particular book, though I did hear that it was going to be reprinted.

Don't moan that the library is closed, when in fact you do have access to it. The office is closed, because there is only one member of staff on duty, who has been/will be on duty all day, and needs a lunch break.

If you're a party animal, that's cool. I really don't mind people going clubbing or whatever every night of the week if they so choose. I drink myself on a night out. What I do mind, however, is when said party animal repeatedly tries to turn even the most casual get-together (eg going to someone's house, or a BBQ) into a total drink-fest with the music turned right up. If you want a wild night, arrange one - but I get became tired of people turning every meet-up into a liver-pounding party. (I am no longer friends with the culprits.) Sometimes I just want a casual, relaxed catch-up with friends with good conversation, you know?

Please, please could people quit with the "if you're friends with them, you can't be friends with me" tripe? It's so juvenile; people actually did this to me when I was about 10. You don't get to decide who I'm friends with just because you don't mesh well with the other person. If you keep up the "them or me" campaign, you can bet I'll drop you.

Living up to the student stereotype (whatever that is) does NOT give you licence to be a pain in the backside (to put it in Ehell-approved terms), whether you live in student digs or not. "Living life to the full", believe it or not, isn't a euphemism for "treat everyone like rubbish when they complain about behaviour you wouldn't want to be subjected to, because they're obviously just boring/square/trying to spoil your fun". Have some consideration for the people around you. Just because your parents aren't around to tell you off, doesn't mean something is automatically acceptable.

Sometimes the students haven't been able to even purchase the textbooks.

And this can be because the book is out of print, but the lecturer giving out the reading list has not bothered to check that. When I was working, we would get calls from other colleges asking ot borrow a certain book, because the author was one of our staff. However, it had been out of print for several years, our only copy had been "liberated" by some selfish person, and even the author himself was unable to help enquirers. I finally told one person who said "But it's on my reading list" to take the said reading list to the lecturer and point this out. That was the last time anyone ever rang asking for that particular book, though I did hear that it was going to be reprinted.

When I was a teaching assistant for Freshman English, I didn't really "assist" anyone. I taught my own class and got to pick the books for it. Just before the start of every semester, I'd go into the bookstore and check to see if all the books I'd ordered were in yet.

One semester, I had ordered "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," which is a Middle English poem. I'd carefully chosen the edition that was translated into Modern English, as I didn't expect incoming freshmen to be fluent in Middle English.

So I was very surprised to find the Middle English edition on the shelf for my class. I stormed over to the book ordering office to find out what was going on. They had to spend a couple of days researching the issue.

One publisher, the one that published the book I needed, had been bought out by another publisher. The second publisher now had three editions of "Sir Gawain" on its list, which was thought by someone to be one too many editions. So, without checking to see what the differences between the editions were, they deleted the only translation from their list, and kept the two editions that were in Middle English.

The book store was able to scrounge up enough copies of the edition I needed, and the following semester, I was happy to see that logic had prevailed at the publishing house, and they were once again offering the translated version.

Please remember that the professor often does not have the power to change what publishers have done. Please do not berate us for problems with a computer system that we are required to use. Read the syllabus, shower, do not surf facebook during class. I know the game is important, but having a long discussion about it during class is never appropriate. If I have told you that I am allergic to perfume, please do not wear perfume to my classroom. I will be sick for days later. I am not psychic but I am not stupid either - so don't make up weird excuses why you are missing class or not doing the homework, but don't just ghost. Learning comes from hard work, so please be prepared that class isn't going to be easy. If college was easy, everyone would do it - remember Terry Pratchett said "If you trust in yourself...and believe in your dreams....and follow your star.... you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy".

Please remember that the professor often does not have the power to change what publishers have done. Please do not berate us for problems with a computer system that we are required to use. Read the syllabus, shower, do not surf facebook during class. I know the game is important, but having a long discussion about it during class is never appropriate. If I have told you that I am allergic to perfume, please do not wear perfume to my classroom. I will be sick for days later. I am not psychic but I am not stupid either - so don't make up weird excuses why you are missing class or not doing the homework, but don't just ghost. Learning comes from hard work, so please be prepared that class isn't going to be easy. If college was easy, everyone would do it - remember Terry Pratchett said "If you trust in yourself...and believe in your dreams....and follow your star.... you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy".